This is way off topic, but Lubbock has been visited by an unusual number of monarch butterflies over the last week. For the past day all you had to do was stand in your back yard and watch them fly buy. This is a little early for their annual migration. Perhaps we’re headed for another cold winter. Regardless it’s a beautiful sight to see the creatures waft by.
Go here for all about the butterflies
What do you mean by cold winter? You live in Texas. Come up to Minnesota and do some ice fishing.
Don’t talk to me about cold. I Lived in Chicago, along the lake, for 12 years. Minus 87 wind chills. Twenty Seven days in a row below freezing. Chicago is the coldest big city in the world. Texas cold means 24 hours without exceeding 32 degrees Fahrenheit. I have yet to wear an overcoat down here, but we think it’s cold when it is – by our effete standards.
Be careful with your entomology and beware that monarch can be easily confused with the queen butterfly.
I lived in Lubbock for two years, and I found a butterfly that I thought it was monarch (Danaus plexippus). I actually took a close look to the shape of the white spots in the wings of the insect, etc and found that it was not a monarch but a queen butterfly (Danaus gillipus). Both can be confused between each other by an amateur observer, and both may be seen in Texas as well.
I wonder if this photograph that you uploaded above is indeed the species that you saw or if it is a photograph from internet and not the actual butterfly that you found.
That butterfly that I saw in Lubbock (death) was found in 3027, 55th Street late summer 2008. I framed the butterfly, and will send you the picture to your email so that you can see how similkar it is to the monarch.
By the way, the monarch butterfly is the insect of the state of Texas, and the butterfly of Minnesota